Occupational Health Management Plan

Occupational Health Management Plan
Student Name
Student ID
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Executive Summary
Hazards associated with harmful lifestyle behaviours such as unhealthy diet
consumption and prolonged engagement in sitting result in negative health
consequences like obesity, loss of muscle mobility and increased risk of metabolic
disorders. To address the same, an occupational health management safety plan has
been developed for an accounting firm where workers engage in long hours of sitting
and intake of an inadequate diet from the workplace cafeteria. The following report
discusses extensively on the background and significance of such as intervention,
existing safety policies and implementation of an educational and practical
demonstration plan aimed at enlightening managers and café workers as well as
reducing sitting time and increasing exercise and balanced diet consumption among
the concerned workers.
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Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................ii
Industry or organisation name....................................................................................2
An introduction............................................................................................................ 2
Definitions...................................................................................................................3
Workplace demography..............................................................................................4
Assessment of risk......................................................................................................4
Critical review of relevant literature.............................................................................5
Management Plan.......................................................................................................5
Emergency Response................................................................................................6
Evaluation...................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 6
References.................................................................................................................8
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Industry or organisation name
The organization which has been chosen for the preparation and implementation of
the occupational health safety management plan, is ‘ABC Consultants’ (name
changed to maintain anonymity, privacy and confidentiality) – an accounting firm
located in the Sydney, Australia.
An introduction
Background: For the maintenance of optimum health and wellbeing, it is of utmost
importance for individuals to maintain an equilibrium of dietary and exercise activities
characterised by engagement in adequate amounts of exercise, reduction in
prolonged hours of sitting or sedentary activities and increased intake of a diet
balanced in the five food groups outlined by the Australian Dietary Guidelines (Malek
et al., 2016). Living a sedentary lifestyle characterised by prolonged hours of sitting –
a prevalent requirement in most desk associated jobs similar to the one chosen for
this report – along with consumption of an unhealthy diet, results in negative health
manifestations in the form of increased susceptibility to obesity and the associated
emergence of metabolic deficits such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus,
hepatic and renal disorders and possibilities of cancer (Huang, Benford & Blake,
2019).
Hence, to prevent the same, the Department of Health recommended adults aged 18
to 64 years to practice 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate intensity and 1.25 to 2.5 hours of
vigorous intensity physical activity, every week (Department of Health, 2019).
Additionally, the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend consumption of a
balanced diet containing reasonable amounts of core food groups such as: fruits,
vegetable, legumes and beans, whole grains and cereal products, reduced fat milk
and milk products like cheese, yogurt, seeds, nuts, beans and lean meats like fish,
poultry and eggs (Nutrition Australia, 2019). However, as per the National Health
Survey covered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017 -2018), it was observed
that adults within the age group of 18 to 64 years, engaged primarily in sitting
(43.7%) followed by walking (22.8%), standing (19.5%) and vigorous physical activity
(13.6%). Further data revealed high rates of obesity (67.0%) and consumption of fruit
across more than slightly half of the population engaging in fruit consumption (51.3%)
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019).
Such habits have been implicated to be largely prevalent across sedentary
occupational environments with limited time, awareness or availability of employee
engagement in exercise or balanced diet consumption. Hence, such a background is
indicative of the low rates of physical activity, healthy food consumption and high
rates of sedentary lifestyle, necessitating the immediate need to administer measures
to address these metabolic and lifestyle hazards to health (Huang, Benford & Blake,
2019).
Aims: To plan, develop and implement an occupational health management plan on
a chosen accounting firm operating in Sydney, Australia, for the mitigation of lifestyle
and metabolic health complications associated with prolonged hours of sedentary
work and availability and consumption of nutritionally imbalanced food by the
workplace cafeteria.
Objectives: Hence, in alignment with the above identified objective, the occupational
management plan will be developed as per the following objectives:
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